


Who Will Blow the Candle Out Tonight?

by Luka



Category: Primeval
Genre: First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 01:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20283313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luka/pseuds/Luka
Summary: Stephen's birthday doesn't quite go to plan.





	Who Will Blow the Candle Out Tonight?

The first time Nick saw Stephen out celebrating his birthday was the year he inherited him as a Masters student. Helen had done her disappearing act, and the department was in uproar trying to cover her work until part-time help could be drafted in. Nick was allocated two of her students – a dippy blonde girl called Ruth who couldn't even be guaranteed to spell her own name right, and Stephen. Ruth was lovely, but chronically unsuited to PhD-level studying. Stephen, on the other hand, was a joy to teach. He wasn't a great talker, but the work he produced was outstanding.

Nick was passing the student bar on the way back to his office to collect some paperwork when he glanced in through the window. It was crowded and smoky as always, but seemingly everyone was watching the couple on the dancefloor. Stephen and Ruth were jiving – very well, Nick noted absently. Ruth's long blonde hair was loose round her shoulders, and Stephen was smiling at her. The music must have stopped, because the pair came to a halt. Ruth dropped a curtsey to her partner, and Stephen bowed in return. Hands passed them drinks, and then the crush closed around them. 

The second year, Nick was on his way home when he saw about a dozen of the postgrads straggling down the road towards the Indian restaurant. 

"Evening, Professor!"

"Where are you all off to?"

"For a curry. It's Stephen's birthday."

"Many happy returns."

"Thanks." He blushed slightly.

"Why don't you join us, professor?"

"Thanks for the invite, but I'm on my way to a meeting. Have fun."

The only meeting was between him and the bottle of Scotch.

The third year, he was in the refectory when he heard them planning to take a cheap flight to Dublin.

"I know this brilliant hostel we can stay in. It'll cost us next to nothing, so we can spend our dosh on the important things."

"Yeah, but where is it? It's no good if we're halfway to Cork …"

"It's right in the city centre, by the bus station."

"Sounds like you'll have a good time," said Nick, collecting his plate of sausages and mash with Flo the cook's special onion gravy.

"It's Stephen's birthday. And Ruth's celebrating her engagement."

"Congratulations! Not to each other, I assume?"

There was a gale of laughter. "Not much chance of that!"

And Nick was left to ponder the comment as he found a spare table in the corner of the refectory.

The fourth year, Nick found himself alone with Stephen in the office at 8pm. They'd spent a lot of time together that year now Stephen's PhD was finished and he was working as Nick's research assistant. They'd fallen into an easy way of working, like a pair of old slippers.

Nick had squirreled Stephen's birth date away in his brain and had been anticipating it for weeks. And he'd enjoyed the look of surprise on Stephen's face when he arrived for work that morning and found a muffin from the refectory with a candle stuck in it on his desk.

"Happy birthday," said Nick, handing him a mug of tea.

"Thank you! How did you know it was my birthday?"

"Ah, it's my job to know everything!"

Stephen rolled his eyes and broke a piece off the muffin. 

"So what have you got planned for tonight?"

"Nothing." Stephen booted up his computer and started sorting through a pile of paperwork on his desk.

"I thought your birthday was the big social event of the year."

Stephen shrugged. "It used to be fun, but now everyone's moved away …"

"Oh." Before Nick could add anything, the phone rang. It was the Dean wanting to know why Nick wasn't at the budget meeting. Nick swore, grabbed some papers and exited hastily.

The day turned into something out of Keystone Cops. Nick returned from the meeting to find Stephen trying to comfort an undergraduate who'd lost all her data when her laptop crashed. And no, of course she hadn't backed it up on a memory stick. She'd been meaning to, but … Nick frowned, as the girl seemed virtually to be sitting in Stephen's lap.

"Take your laptop over to the IT centre and see if they can retrieve some of the data. And next time back up," snapped Nick. The girl fled.

Stephen raised his eyebrows and seemed about to say something when the fire alarm went off. They grabbed their rucksacks and pounded down the stairs to the assembly point by the students' union. And they were still there half an hour later after two fire engines turned up. Nick turned around to moan to Stephen about wankers letting off fire alarms and noticed he was chatting to two of the PhD students.

"Ah, Nick, I wonder if I could talk to you about that research seminar next month …"

Nick cursed inwardly as Gilbert Turner, the most boring man in the department, crept up on his blindside. "What do you want to know, Gilbert?" He caught Stephen's eye, willing him to come to the rescue.

Instead Stephen said: "It looks like this is going to go on for ages, so I'll take my lunchbreak now. See you later." And he headed off with his two mates. 

Nick sighed and resigned himself to being stuck with Gilbert for the duration.

It was over an hour by the time the building was declared free of smoke. Nick had just enough time to rush back to his office and grab his notes for the afternoon lecture. And when he returned an hour later, cursing the terminal dimness of the first years, he found Stephen filling in forms as if his life depended on it.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"That grant application we thought was due in next week. The deadline's tomorrow."

"Oh shit."

"Yes. I've done the first two sections, but you're going to have to do the next bit."

At 6pm the computer crashed, losing half an hour's work. Nick swore creatively and kicked the wastepaper bin across the room where it connected with the filing cabinet and brought a stack of files cascading to the ground. Bungalow Bill the security guard was sent away with a flea in his ear when he came lumbering along to see what had happened.

Stephen, who rarely swore, employed some combinations of curses that Nick had never heard before. "Right, you pick those up and phone out for a pizza before I start gnawing on that bloody bone over there. I'll redo the form." 

"Garlic bread as well?"

"Do bears pooh in the woods?"

"Just so long as you don't breathe it over me …"

"I'll have to claim my birthday kiss before instead of after, then!"

Nick thought he'd misheard for a moment. Then he realised that Stephen was smiling at him, eyes twinkling.

"No tongues …" Nick smiled back, trying to keep the joke going.

"Aw come on, that's the fun bit!"

And then Nick started to worry. Maybe Stephen had finally seen what Nick thought he'd kept hidden deep for so long. He stared at Stephen, trying to gauge what he could see.

Stephen said surprisingly gently: "Let's get this crap out of the way. Then I really would like you to kiss me. And we needn't stop at that …"

"Oh, Stephen …" Nick tentatively stroked Stephen's spiky hair, sure that he'd be rebuffed.

"Later." Stephen touched Nick's cheek. "Let's have that pizza, finish this bloody paperwork, then we can go round to yours or mine."

Nick reached for his mobile. Speedy Pizza was on speed-dial, and Ravi, who answered the phone, knew immediately what he was going to order. 

"Can you make that two pizzas please, Ravi. And some garlic bread and some chicken wings."

"On a promise tonight, professor?" Ravi's voice was as cheerful as ever.

"Something like that! Tell Toni to phone when he's outside, will you?"

"Of course. Have a good night, professor."

"And you, Ravi."

Nick put the kettle on and made them mugs of strong coffee. When his phone rang, he opened the window and lowered down a holdall with the money in. Toni packed the food into it and watched as Nick hauled it back up. He then waved and headed off into the night on his moped.

"God, that smells good," groaned Stephen, looking up from the computer screen.

"How far are you off finishing?"

"Ten minutes or so. You'll have to find the stats for the next section, then we'll be done. We should be out of here by Christmas if we're lucky!"

"Let's eat first."

"Just let me hit save and email myself a back-up. Not that I'm paranoid or anything …"

They sat cross-legged on the office floor to eat the food. It felt relaxed and companionable, like any one of the countless field trips they'd been on.

"You know how to give a boy a good time," said Stephen, snaffling the last slice of garlic bread.

"I wanted to take you out for dinner tonight. But every time I was going to ask you, something happened."

"Sod's bloody Law that the only time you think about opening your wallet, we get stuck in this place!"

Nick gave him the finger and they both burst out laughing. It made him realise how serious Stephen was a lot of the time and how cute he looked when he smiled. He couldn't resist leaning over and kissing Stephen, tasting garlic and tomatoes on his lips. Stephen returned the kiss, his arms round Nick's waist.

"Tongues," observed Nick, breaking for air, his head spinning.

"Tongues," agreed Stephen, who was looking rather flushed. "Look, let's get all this crap sorted out, then you can take me away from this place and give me a birthday to remember."


End file.
